YOUR VIEW: The sun for the middle class

Good news for solar energy is coming in a steady stream from all over the country. According to a solar progress report from the United States government, “the last year the amount of solar power installed in the United States has increased nearly 11 fold – from 1.2 gigawatts in 2008 to an estimated 13 gigawatts today, which is enough to power more than 2.2 million American homes.”

“Every four minutes another American home or business goes solar, every panel pounded into place by a worker whose job can’t be outsourced.” – President Barack Obama, January 2014

Good news for solar energy is coming in a steady stream from all over the country. According to a solar progress report from the United States government, “the last year the amount of solar power installed in the United States has increased nearly 11 fold – from 1.2 gigawatts in 2008 to an estimated 13 gigawatts today, which is enough to power more than 2.2 million American homes.”

Since the beginning of 2011, the average price of solar panels has dropped more than 60 percent, and the price of a solar photovoltaic electric system has dropped by about 50 percent. Solar is now more affordable and more accessible for more American families and companies. In fact, today, PV solar modules cost about 1 percent of what they did 35 years ago, and six of 10 major U.S. homebuilders now offer PV as a standard available feature in new construction.

Five years ago, there were no commercial-scale solar energy projects on Department of Interior lands. Today, the Interior Department is on track to permit 20 gigawatts of renewable energy projects on public lands by 2020; the Defense Department has set a goal to deploy 3 gigawatts of renewable energy – including solar, wind, biomass and geothermal – on Army, Navy and Air Force installations by 2025. And, as part of the Climate Action Plan, the federal government, overall, committed to sourcing 20 percent of the energy consumed in federal buildings from renewable sources by 2020.

Locally, the town of Plymouth is installing 1,000 solar panels in a solar farm at Plymouth North High School. Large photovoltaic systems are installed on the ground along Route 44 and Route 93 in Boston. The town of Marshfield is building a 3.87-megawatt solar farm on top of its 27-acre former landfill. Currently, Massachusetts has 16 operational renewable energy landfill sites.

Nine more similar projects are under construction in Acton, Carver, Fairhaven, Lowell, Maynard, Rockland, Scituate, Springfield and Sudbury. Solar panels have been installed on the roof of the White House. Thirty-five states in this country have solar access laws, which means that in addition to federal incentives these states also subsidize the installation of solar panels.

Researchers are working on developing solar road panels that will accommodate motorized and pedestrian traffic and melt snow (solarroadways.com). Imagine roads that create clean energy instead of polluting air, soil and water with the toxic asphalt. The growth of solar applications requires more storage of electricity, so new technology is developing electro-chemical storage units that use vanadium instead of lithium. The solar industry already produces flexible panels that can be wrapped around light poles and a transparent solar film that can be placed on windows. Currently, solar panels produce less than 1 percent U.S. energy needs. Western Europe is doing much better. In June 2014 in a one-hour period Germany produced 50.6 percent of its total electricity with solar panels, 90 percent of those panels were installed on roofs. As the cost of manufacturing solar panels decreases and their efficiency increases, governmental subsidies will decrease and eventually disappear. At the same time, electric companies will continue their price hikes. Thus, it may make sense to get your own electric power station on your roof. And that’s what we did in Plymouth.

Page 2 of 2 - In April 2014, our first month of solar operation, we got a $0 electricity bill and $46.48 credit from NSTAR. In May, we got $0 bill and $65.4 credit. The initial cost of the panels was about $30,000, but governmental subsidies brought it down to $17,000. The conservatively estimated annual savings in our house is $2,600($1,100 per year) of electricity bills avoided, plus $1,500/year payments for the electricity that we generate (called SREC). The projected breakeven point of our solar investment is 6 1/2 years.

The investment in solar also increases the resale value of a home. According to our solar installer’s experience, that increase is about $4,000 per KW of electricity generated by solar power. We have a modest 5.88 KW system, therefore our house could be worth roughly $24,000 more than the same house without solar panels. So, if we want to sell our house within one year after the installation of solar panels, we would probably recover our initial $17,000 and, in addition, make $7,000.

Developers can also use the growing solar demand for profit. For a house like ours they would pay an additional $17,000 for solar panels but also add $24,000 to the price of the house, thus making a $7,000 profit. Unlike us, the developers would not have to drag through the approval process set by the homeowners association. They could apply directly to the town of Plymouth, because they build houses before an HOA creates its rules.

As a result, homeowners who wish to live independently from electric companies would avoid convoluted permitting process, buy more valuable homes for a bit more money and the developers would get their profit. And what else? You guessed it: The natural environment would get a bit cleaner.